Sunken City in San Pedro would be open to the public during the day under new proposal

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The landslide area near Point Fermin in San Pedro, known as Sunken City, is filled with people on a Sunday morning, despite being off-limits. Sunday, May 3, 2015. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

A group of yoga practitioners makes use of the concrete slabs left behind from the former neighborhood before the landslide in the Sunken City area near Point Fermin. Sunday, May 3, 2015. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

The apocalyptic-looking tourist mecca off San Pedro known as Sunken City would be officially opened to the public during daylight hours under a proposal pushed by Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino.

Buscaino formally asked city parks officials this month to study the possibility of legally allowing visitors into the 6-acre property next to Point Fermin Park rather than forcing them to trespass. Local residents last year launched a campaign to reopen the area for the first time in decades.

“As you are aware, the rich history and scenic views from Sunken City in San Pedro tend to attract many visitors from throughout the region on a daily basis,” Busciano wrote in a May 1 letter to Michael Shull, director of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. “It is one of the only areas along our coastline that remains closed to the public.”

The proposal being explored would not remove the 1987 wrought iron fence around Sunken City, but instead would add an automated gate allowing entry only during the day. It would automatically lock from the outside at sunset.

Buscaino requested that the department “look into, and consider, the viability of reopening this area to the community.”

Sunken City once was home to bungalow homes overlooking the ocean in a housing tract owned by Harbor Area developer George Peck.

Then, in 1929, it all began sliding toward the ocean.

Waves crashing below were weakening the bluff’s stability, a situation that was compounded by the presence of slippery clay bentonite soil. The collapse was gradual enough that all but two of the homes on the farthest edge were moved in time. The ruins below include old Red Car tracks and slabs of concrete that once were streets and sidewalks.

But residents say the land has been stable for years.

Among the issues still to be explored is the city’s liability for any injuries suffered by visitors. City attorneys likely will take a closer look at those potential legal pitfalls in the coming months.

But supporters argue that other coastal cliff areas throughout the state are not fenced off, allowing residents and visitors to enjoy the views. They also point to a legal opinion they received last October from the Hermosa Beach law firm of Chatten-Brown & Carstens LLP.

“In short, our conclusion is that due to various statutes protecting the city from liability and promoting public recreational access, the city’s potential liability will be very low, while the potential for beneficial public access and increased recreational use of the area is very high,” Douglas P. Carstens and Michelle Black wrote in an Oct. 31 letter to the Sunken City Watch Committee.

Liability is “always an issue that governments struggle with,” said Andrew Willis, enforcement supervisor for the California Coastal Commission.

Supporters from the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council are hoping to soon set up a walking tour of the area with Buscaino and parks officials.

It ultimately is up to the city of Los Angeles, Willis said, to initiate a proposal to open up the area that neighbors say has been stable for years. There is no set timeline for the feasibility study requested by Buscaino.

City officials have been wary of taking down the fence. But the fence, supporters argue, does little to keep trespassers out — many easily slip underneath the fence or walk partway down the cliff to swing around the end of the fence and gain access to the other side.

Attorneys Carstens and Black wrote in their letter that “the city is fully protected from tort liability for accidents and injuries that might occur at Sunken City.”

They also argued that the state obligates the city to “provide access to public treasures like Sunken City. The Legislature weighed the competing interests of public safety and public access and came down squarely in support of public access to recreational resources.”

“Areas around California where public access to potentially dangerous areas has been allowed in a very popular and successful way include the following: the Los Angeles River, Black’s Beach in San Diego, Douglas Family Reserve in Santa Barbara, Palisades Park in Santa Monica and in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes … Trump National Golf Course and the Terranea Resort.”

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.